Can't get book onto my kobo

[m_bisson]

Hello.
I just bought The Sherlockian from the kobobooks website but it won't show up on my kobo. It DOES show up in the Kobo software on my PC and I am able to read it fine there. I have tried syncing with the USB connected to the Kobo, as well as with the Wireless on the kobo itself. The book will not download to the kobo.

What's going on here?

[zoran]

What versions of firmware and desktop app? What format of the book?
If everything fails, are you able to download epub and load it to the
reader?

[taming]

Plug your Kobo-W in via USB and choose "manage library". You will want to look at your files in the .kobo directory under kepub to see if a book "landed" there at the time you did your sync. On a Windows machine, you look at the Kobo file system in "My Computer", where it will appear as a drive. If the book appears to be there (that is, there is a file in kepub with a date and time that matches when you purchased your book), then the book is there, but somehow managed to miss the hookup with the sqlite Db that is necessary for you to access the book itself. If this is the case, delete the file from kepub and start over.

If the book is there and you have deleted it, or never got there and you want to use sync, then go into your library on the desktop application, rt click on the book and delete it from the bookshelf. Then go back on the kobobooks website, sign in, and go to "purchased books" in your library. Put a check mark next to the book (The Sherlockians), and then click on "bookmark". Answer yes, when asked if you want to bookmark it on page one.

Now go back to the desktop application, and choose update library. A new download of the book will appear on the desktop application. Try a sync, as usual. If the book still does not go onto your reader, then you probably have a defective book. This does not mean that the book will not load as an ePUB file. If sync is the only way you want to get your books, contact Kobo and ask for a refund, but I would try to download the book as an ePUB and see if that worked first. You should remove the file (if it appears again) from kepub before you add through Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) or sideload using Calibre, which does not seem to care if there is already an entry in kepub.

BTW, I have gotten one book where it happened just like you described and this worked. I have also had one book that the publisher sent in the wrong file format that I had to mess around with in ways that no end user should ever have to do. Occasionally, bad books happen. Occasionally, bad stuff happens to good books as they are prepared for our reader.

[m_bisson]

There was nothing that matched the date in the kepub folder. I tried re-downloading and re-syncing and it still did not work. Digital Editions seems to have done it okay though. Will I only be able to manage the book with DE now, or will the Kobo application see it now that it's on the device?

Also, the Epub does not display the correct name of the book.... Iherlockian instead of The Sherlockian. Hopefully there aren't any other made-up words as I read through the book

One cool thing I like about this website is the tremendous use of spelling and grammar. I wish more people would learn to read and write

[taming]

Contact Kobo help about this, m_bisson. Books that are sideloaded through ADE or Calibre cannot be managed through the desktop application. If you like managing through sync, you should ask if they can fix the book, or give you your money back. I've been thinking about buying this book, but I don't much feel like taking on a project.

[m_bisson]

Ok. I shall email them and let you know what they say/do.

[JPenguin]

I thought I was having issues transferring books to my Kobo last week too . . . . . but I was only looking at books in the "I'm Reading" list, not all books, oops!

If you're on the "I'm Reading" page then press the Menu button and choose "Books" instead of "I'm Reading".

[m_bisson]

Tried that I was 100% not there. There is no user error involved in this quandary.

[taming]

m-bisson--it might be worth one more try after the update happens. I had a problem book that one of the betas was good with after multiple fails with the older desktop.

[januaryman]

I had this same problem buying my first (and probably my last) book from them for my iPad. I tried syncing, closing the app, restarting iPad, etc. I got a receipt, the app showed that my accounmt had purchased the book, but I did not have it on my device!

A note to them about the problem early yesterday gave me a immediate robot response and that evening, still not receiving a response to the email, I turned on Kobo reader app and the book started downloading. Very poor access compared to any other bookstore.

[taming]

Turning the iPad off and then on again created a sync with the Kobo server that manages such things. The application has to sync before new books are sent to your device. I don't have an iPAD, so I do not know if you have a sync option without closing the application and then opening it again.

[m_bisson]

Finally, after the latest software update, The Sherlockian synced. So I guess it was a problem withe the kobo software and not the book itself.

[taming]

That book does have problems. For example, when you download it as an ePUB file into ADE, the title is wrong. It's great if the new firmware or desktop software corrects for that. I ended up pulling it into Calibre and changing the title when I downloaded the metadata and cover.

Then again, they may have fixed the book. I know they had complaints, and the more recent updates make it possible to push those book corrections to our desktop application when we sync without the "let's redo the whole d@mn thing" kind of library correction.